Des alps, Stories of success booklet

Stories of success How are companies growing with Design Thinking

Name of the publication: DesAlps - Stories of success The publication was created as part of the DesAlps project, funded through the Interreg Alpine Space programme and is the work of all project partners.

“This project is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund through the Interreg Alpine Space programme” Date of issue: February 2020 Design and layout: Nenad Bebić, Slovenia Printed by: Podgorelec d.o.o., Slovenia

Design Thinking is a mindset that guides organisations to the development of new products and services, starting from user needs and continuing with an iterative path of ideation and testing.

Design Thinking is the search for a balance between:

• Concept & execution • Playfulness & formality • Intuition & logic • Business & art • Control & empowerment • Structure & chaos

Do you want to develop new products / services from the customer's perspective in order to improve your portfolio? Your solutions are good. Do you want them to be even better?

Are you open to challenge and working together with other small and medium sized companies? To find new solutions?

Use methods and solutions which can help you become more efficient!

• Develop user-centered innovation with Design Thinking.

• Get to know Design Thinking as a versatile innovation process that you can apply to your business - for example, in development, production and customer care challenges.

www.designthinkinglab.eu

What is the Design Thinking Lab?

The Design Thinking Lab improves the framework condition for innovation in the Alpine Space by enhancing the knowledge and competence of intermediaries and policy makers on Design Thinking to assist entrepreneurs with a dedicated strategy and structure: a Virtual Training Centre. The platform provides training contents and activities on a regular basis to support both, operators and SMEs for DT-oriented activities at the local and Alpine level.

3 reasons to join the Design Thinking Lab • News and Updates Events, seminars, workshops and up to date, stimulating material on Design Thinking • Transnational Experts Community exchange and direct experience on the application of Design Thinking methodology, receive and give feedback on the efficacy of its application, share best and worst practices • Business Innovation Boost SME innovation processes and growth while preserving connection with the territory

6 active more than Design 500 companies Thinking Labs 10 partners involved in pilot that will carry on from 5 countries. activities. the work.

DT Lab Germany - Stuttgart

DT Lab Austria – Linz

DT Lab Slovenia - Ljubljana

DT Lab Piedmont - Torino

DT Lab Veneto - Treviso

DT Lab South Region France - Toulon

Legend

Market data: annual turnover, export share, EBITDA …

Product / service range

Geographical coverage

Relevant supply chains and most important internationally known trade partners

Innovation(s) in the company

Yalp envisions, designs, and brings clients’ special projects, to life, as brands, spaces, interactive experiences, and products so they can speak directly to users’ hearts.

SPEAK TO THE HEART OF THE USER Brand solutions that draw audiences in with emotive stories and compelling experiences

The marketing landscape is constantly evolving. Every day there are new technologies, new opportunities, and new tactics that you can employ to engage with your audience.

Yalp believes in focus.

In cutting through the noise to find clarity.

Italy

YALP Via Tommaso da Modena 8 – 31100 Treviso (TV) Italy – Veneto Region www.yalp.me

Focus on emotions to create strong value The Design Thinking test experimented with by the company aimed at empowering clients with empathy and feelings to increase the efficacy of communication products.

The workshop organised by t2i at the YALP premises in Treviso on July 2019, in cooperation with Padua University

The first contact of YALP with Design Thinking was during a workshop organised by t2i in cooperation with Padua University on Emotional Design. The aim of the workshop was to test the importance of understanding the emotions behind product ideation and how to transfer them into products. Working in the communication filed it is crucial to properly manage the emotions that we want to convey through marketing campaigns. Therefore, YALP decided to conduct a step-two test, involving all company sectors and some key clients.

In this phase, the Design Thinking approach offered a whole new perspective for the definition and use of emotions, helping to establish a formal approach for empathising with clients. The company was able to create a starting point of awareness on the importance of sharing emotions involved in the communica-

tion of products, and to launch an effective communication channel between the company mission and designers.

Moreover, a process of implementation into the day to day management of tools derived from Design Thinking methodology was started, by activating a more defined study of empathy and emotional mapping for new projects.

IT PO

ER NET Starting as a web agency that works on demand, IT POWER NET is now designing and selling its own digital products

From a range of standard services to the development of a dedicated sector for developing Amazon’s voice assistant skills

Development of the new business has lead to direct contact with multinational companies through Amazon mediation.

Voice assistants Artificial intelligence to design meaningful products and services

Italy

IT Power Net srl Via Immacolata 1/5, 35013 – Cittadella (PD) Italia – Veneto Region www.itpowernet.it

Digital artisans: from local to international market

Design Thinking helped to explore the potential of a new business based on Artificial Intelligence and voice assistant abilities, opening towards the global market.

Nowadays, many smart speakers allow users to interact with voice assistants, a technology that will soon be included in every device around us.

IT POWER NET attended a Design Thinking Lab organised by t2i on December 2018 where participants tested tools to collect and more efficiently answer the customers’ needs. But even better, the lab was an occasion to reflect on the business model of the company itself, that was increasingly put at risk by a growing number of cheap competitors, as well as the possibility to start producing its own digital products to exploit the potentialities of spreading digital voice assistants. IT POWER NET took the opportunity to further evaluate this chance and was assisted by a DT facilitator to prepare the Personas clients and define both, the current business model and the new one. As a result of the reasoning, the green light was given to the new business sector, based on

the company’s knowledge of creation of services, games and IoT functionalities for the Alexa - Amazon digital speaker.

When some testing products were promoted on the Amazon marketplace, they collected extremely positive feedback, while a number of big international clients were reached through Amazon mediation. The company is also in the process of rebranding this company sector and designing a dedicated website.

Thanks to Experientia introducing new tools, Forestae was able to understand, define, design and test better solutions for their internal organisation.

Design Thinking can also be used to approach the complexity of a marketing strategy.

The team has applied the tools only to their own company for now, but is planning to extend and apply the methodology to their clients in Italy and abroad.

CREATE CHANGE IN ORGANISATIONS

Forestae uses a Design Thinking approach to improve workflow and bring about organisational change

Italy

Forestae Via Agostino da Montefeltro, 2 Torino www.forestae.com

Design Thinking offers an entirely different view of traditional processes.

Practitioners can obtain a deeper understanding of the problem from the perspective of all affected parties when design thinking is incorporated into a change management program.

The Forestae team working on improving workflows, mapping out their most frequent relations and communication channels.

Forestae was seeking to address the challenge of how to rearrange the internal workflow when annual income and number of employees and collaborators grow suddenly. They were facing communication overlaps, organisational bottle necks and a hectic work environment. Design thinking, through its collaborative approach, helped the team define both the problem and the solution, and overcome one of the major contributors to project’s failure resistance - as the required change is defined and resolved by the people it most directly impacts. It brings together people with differing knowledge and skill sets, establishes collaborative environments and encourages ideas from everyone.

This allows collaboration to flow, first as a process and then as part of an ingrained organisational culture.

The true innovation of EDITAG is lean and connected logistics.

EDITAG helps industries to smartly digitalise their processes.

EDITAG masters all the bricks of an IoT system to define and deliver the most appropriate architecture to develop and deploy.

EDITAG has an annual turnover of 2 m€ and 15 employees.

What about your experiences ?

Understand and engage future Monalitag software users

fRANCE EDITAG France – Siège Social Route de Valbrillant - Europarc Sainte Victoire BAT 12 - 13590 MEYREUIL www.editag.eu

Theme of the user research: how to manage our patrimony safety when an incident occurs?

The participants were all directly concerned by the theme.

The ATRIOOM agency created two workshops: • For the first workshop: a game to gather feedback, needs, and pain points from the participants regarding this question.

• For the second workshop: the participants had to map their user journeys. The idea was to highlight the opportunities to improve it.

EDITAG has created an all-in-one software solution to meet the needs of a cultural institution for the reserves, for exhibitions and during works of art transport and loans. But this software does not yet manage the safety of the patrimony.

They had no insights from the people in charge of this safety. Thanks to the Design Thinking workshops, they identified their real needs and will develop new usefull functionalities in the existing software.

Checking-out how to work with new clients and figuring out their needs in order to fulfill their requirements

Design Thinking for Oceanography & Marine Meteorology Innovation How Design Thinking supported new innovations and growth pathways for Globocean

The aim was to try out Ux design for new apps in order to explore innovative markets for the future of the company

fRANCE Globocean

Draguignan www.globocean.fr

The Design Thinking support was useful for finding new innovative and better identified services

The 2 main objectives of the DESALPS Design Thinking Support for Globocean were: • Using the Design Thinking approach to go forward on the service offer diversification scenarios; • Exploring new business growth pathways.

The DESALPS experience helped Globocean use brainstorming techniques to get ideas and prioritise for their growth strategies. They were also able to innovate with the 1st draft (paper) of the services linked to 2 apps. Furthermore, it helped them work on new partnerships for example with harbors (personae, elements of prototyping / presentation of services) & better prepare the interactions to test the solutions with identified contacts / Objective: GO / No GO on the current ideas and / or adjustment / evolution of the offer in a co-construction mode.

The aim is to learn a new way of gathering ideas: from the buyers; and implement them in the most effective way

Design Thinking helps to improve products, customer’s user experience and complement it with the most needed services

Design Thinking methods help to strengthen the company’s market position and raise their share on domestic and foreign markets

Stronger brand

The Design Thinking approach will be used to improve the brand image and create better relationships with clients

Slovenia

Gostol TST d.d.

Čiginj 63, Tolmin www.gostol-tst.eu

The Design Thinking workshops open employees’ minds on how we see challenges

Now Gostol TST is more focused on its product users and approaches challenges in a different way.

Gostol TST d.d. produces over 30 types of shot blasting and vibratory finishing equipment, including complex custommade projects. With more than 80% export we cover most of the world’s markets DESALPS gave the opportunity to participate in Design Thinking workshops that shared a new point of view on the challenges that Gostol TST has. After the workshops they decided to transform some processes in the company.

First, they are starting a large user/ design research that will identify the main challenges with its customers. The company will use new information from the field and the customers themselves to strengthen its brand image. The main goal is to be recognised for the company’s expertise and high quality products. Besides, Gostol TST will be able to identify new opportunities to design new services for its customers.

Second, the company is transforming the manufacturing process using Design Thinking and lean principles, which

help to identify the main pain points and solve challenges using the Design Thinking process. Gostol TST has created a focus group of its employees that will take care of implementing the Design Thinking mindset and principles in the company.

video & film production, web design & communication, brand design

the company is one of the leading video production companies in Slovenia

Comprehensive and unique solutions for the industry.

Businesses can get a complete digital service portfolio in one place

VIDEO AND FILM PRODUCTION

Developing new digitalised services for EU markets

Slovenia The company developed a complete set of digitalised video and web services for their customers.

Studio Legen d.o.o.

Pobreška cesta 20 SI-2000 Maribor www.studio-legen.si

How to make the company more competitive?

The company was using the Design Thinking method to offer their customers new services and to expand their business to EU markets.

Studio Legen Ltd. Is a video and film production company with more than 25 years tradition on the Slovenian market. During 2019 they were developing a new range of digital services for their customers, especially in the area of web production and high quality graphic design. They were also organising one stop shop and delivery services for their customers. The company took part at the Design Thinking workshop where their problems concerning internationalisation activities and external promotion were identified and discussed.

The Maribor Development Agency created two workshops at the company’s location: • the first workshop was to define problems, needs, and obstacles from

the perspective of their internationalisation on EU market; • after the workshop the participants looked for the best possible solution for each of the problems identified during the first workshop; • the second workshop was dedicated to prototyping their services for EU markets.

After both workshops the company successfully tested their new offer of services.

Thanks to the Design Thinking workshops, they identified market niches and suitable services to be offered on selected EU markets. In cooperation with the Maribor development Agency, the company also tested their offer on several potential European business partners.

Design Methodology in the field of special machine building HOLZ automation is testing the Design Thinking Methodology for their product development process

Special machines • Linear transfer •Recirculating steering shaft assembly line • Gear assembly line • Recirculating gear assembly line Rotary transfer • Assembly steering clutch • Automation ZME spray cell • Universal joint assembly • Connector assembly

The company is based in Backnang, their customer base has a global scope Customers include the automotive and manufacturing industries

Germany

HOLZ automation GmbH Donaustraße 23 D-71522 Backnang www.holz-automation.de/ home.html

What potential do agile approaches like Design Thinking have? And does that suit us?

These questions were asked

by HOLZ automation. In order to better understand how the methodology of Design Thinking can contribute to their product development process as well as for their internal cooperation and leadership culture they initiated a two-month Design Thinking process.

At first a topic has been chosen that could have potential for HOLZ automation in the future but is not yet part of its product portfolio. Subsequently a team of 10 employees have been invited to take part in the Design Thinking process during which new product and service ideas should be developed for the above mentioned topic.

They took part in two workshops.

The first one was dedicated to better understanding the problems and needs of users and potential customers in the related markets as well as to an initial ideation phase. This first workshop

was followed by three weeks during which the employees held interviews via phone with several stakeholders in the field in order to validate their ideas.

Finally, they came together for the second workshop where they shared new findings from the interviews. This led to further elaboration of selected ideas.

At the end a presentation took place in front of the CEO who also provided his feedback to the newly generated ideas.

As the main motivation of the process was to better understand the Design Thinking process, the next step for HOLZ automation will be to include elements of the Design Thinking process such as customer interviews, creative brainstorming formats or evaluating ideas according to the methodological approach in their daily business.

At GRAND GARAGE innovation focuses on three main pillars: people, knowledge and technology

From idea via iteration to implementation without leaving the location

A cross-fertilization approach is covered by an interdisciplinary open-innovation lifestyle

GRAND GARAGE

4000m² super-charged with state-of-the-art methods and machines in the heart of Linz

Austria

GRAND GARAGE

TABAKFABRIK, Peter-Behrens-Platz 6, 4020 Linz www.grandgarage.eu

The innovation workshop for people, knowledge and technology

The garage as the birthplace of ideas, as a place of playful experimentation, as a pilgrimage site for technology and innovation enthusiasts.

The GRAND GARAGE represents what so many people dream of: a place where you can unfold your creativity, experiment and create. It is like an extended living room where you can develop and implement ideas, either in a group or alone.

In an area of over 4000m2˛ members and customers have the chance to work with big machines: 5-axsis CNC milling machine, industrial-grade Laser Cutters and 3D-printers, The department of creative robotics offers cooperative robot systems and much more.

There is room for newbies and professionals who are supported by workshops and courses for all levels and age groups.

Makers love to create and we created the GRAND GARAGE by integrating Design Thinking principles. We transformed them from passive users to pro-active creators. Doing not talking was the perfect approach.

As the GRAND GARAGE is created on

the users’ needs we have created our own furniture which stimulates creativity and enforces out-of-the-box thinking. Based on the principle of “Design global - produce local” we share all of our designs under a creative-commons license with our fellow DT Labs.

How do you innovate the unknown?

Come and visit us!

Open Innovation competence plattform Salzburg

The plattform adresses Salzburg regional challenges but has no boarders

Open innovation tools and methods developped by Design Thinking

Open Innovation Plattform Salzburg

A plattform that was born by applying solely the user´s point of view using Design Thinking

Austria

Open Innovation Plattform

Südtiroler Platz 11 www.openinnovation-salzburg.at

In the age of digitalisation, Open Innovation opens up new ways of innovating and generates radically new ideas

Open innovation provides different tools and settings to foster innovation. Design Thinking helped to find which tools and methods are need by SME´s Unusual knowledge providers, such as users and experts from other companies, regions or even other sectors, are involved in innovation processes at an early stage. With open innovation, companies not only tinker with new ideas within their companies, but also involve actors such as customers, users, suppliers or interested persons in the innovation process right from the start. With their knowledge and experience, they all contribute to the development of new solutions. In this way, products are developed that are

closer to the customer’s ideas and thus have greater success on the market. Participants deal intensively with various issues on the Open Innovation Salzburg idea platform. Through the digital networking of idea providers and the motivation of the target group, financial, time and organisational efforts can be minimised. Online collaboration can be used in many areas where creativity, new ideas and constructive opinions are required: in generating ideas for new products and services.

Visual and acoustic transformation of spaces with 20 years of working experience in audio business.

New service for creating better, healthier acoustics in Coworking, Co-Creation Workspaces and Labs.

New acoustic product and service for architects, designers… everyone creating new spaces and working environments.

Acoustic revolution Visual and acoustic transformation of spaces

FU ULL LL SERVICE ER ER RVIC VICCE AUDIO

Austria

We need to raise awareness for the nature of acoustics “Remember the last time you were in the woods?...

Why did you feel so good there...?

Why did you experience that feeling of relief?...”

Sonic Flow – Full Service Audio Ölbrennerweg 8, 5071 Wals/Salzburg www.sonicflow.at

Well... you felt relieved mostly because of that unique acoustic space. Your unconscious detects it as “home”, because this is the habitat we still belong to.

Modern working environments like Coworking Spaces or Co-Creation Workspaces and Labs have difficulties in providing these positive acoustic aspects. Even more our unconscious is disgusted by poor acoustics in spaces, and we feel stressed. In the long run the consequences can be fatal: chronic fatigue, burn-out syndrome, dissociation ... In short: Bad acoustics make us sick!

We owe it to ourselves to address these problems. But how?

The good news is, it’s actually pretty simple and costs much less than the money we lose every day through the resulting social problems, the aforementioned health-issues and the lack of efficiency at work.

The solution is a visual and acoustic transformation of spaces: Positive aspects of acoustic spaces can be created by acoustic pictures, objects, mobiles, plants, structured surfaces, fabrics, etc.

Acoustic awareness is a vital step towards enhanced livability (for all of us).

Contact our partners in the DesAlps Partnership

Contact our partners in the DesAlps Partnership Contact Contact our our partners partners in in the the DesAlps DesAlps Partnership Partnership t2i - Trasferimento Tecnologico e t2i -- Trasferimento e Innovazione s. c. a r. l.l.

Innovazione s. c. a r.Tecnologico l. t2i Tecnologico e t2i - Trasferimento Trasferimento Tecnologico e Innovazione Innovazione s. s. c. c. a a r. r. l.

(ITALY) (ITALY) (ITALY) (ITALY) Camera Commerciodidi Padova Camera didi Commercio Padova Camera di Camera di Commercio Commercio di di Padova Padova (ITALY) (ITALY) (ITALY) (ITALY) Città Metropolitana di Torino Torino Città Metropolitana di Città Metropolitana Città Metropolitana di di Torino Torino (ITALY) (ITALY) (ITALY) (ITALY)

t2i - Trasferimento Tecnologico e Innovazione s. c. a r (ITALY) t2i - Trasferimento Tecnologico e Innovazione s. c. a r (ITALY) Camera di Commercio di Padova (ITALY) Camera di Commercio di Padova (ITALY) Città Metropolitana di Torino (ITALY) Città Metropolitana di Torino (ITALY) Business Upper Austria – OÖ Wirtschaftsagentur Gm (AUSTRIA) Business Upper Austria – OÖ Wirtschaftsagentur Gm (AUSTRIA) Innovations- und Technologietransfer Salzburg GmbH (AUSTRIA) Innovations- und Technologietransfer Salzburg GmbH (AUSTRIA) bwcon bwcon GmbH GmbH (GERMANY) (GERMANY) bwcon GmbH (GERMANY) Toulon Toulon Var Var Technologies Technologies FRANCE) FRANCE) Toulon Var Technologies FRANCE) Agence pourl’Innovation l’Innovationetet l’Intenationalisa Agence Régionale Régionale pour des Entreprises de Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (FRA l’Intenationalisation des Entreprises de Agence Régionale pour l’Innovation et l’Intenationalisa Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur des Entreprises de Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (FRA Gospodarska zbornica Slovenije (FRANCE) (SLOVENIA) Gospodarska zbornicaSlovenije Slovenije Gospodarska zbornica (SLOVENIA) Mariborska (SLOVENIA)razvojna agencija (SLOVENIA) Mariborska agencija Mariborska razvojna razvojna agencija (SLOVENIA) (SLOVENIA)

Business Upper Austria OÖ Business Upper Austria–– OÖ Wirtschaftsagentur GmbH Business Upper – Business Upper Austria Austria – OÖ OÖ Wirtschaftsagentur Wirtschaftsagentur GmbH GmbH Wirtschaftsagentur GmbH (AUSTRIA) (AUSTRIA) (AUSTRIA) (AUSTRIA) Innovationsund Technologietransfer Salzburg GmbH Innovationsund Technologietransfer InnovationsundTechnologietransfer Technologietransfer Salzburg Salzburg GmbH GmbH Innovationsund (AUSTRIA) (AUSTRIA) (AUSTRIA) Salzburg GmbH bwcon GmbH (AUSTRIA) bwcon GmbH bwcon GmbH (GERMANY) Stay informed about our next activities (GERMANY) (GERMANY) Stay informed about our next activities Toulon Toulon Var Var Technologies Technologies www.alpine-space.eu/projects/desalps/

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